This page is designed to provide for timely and official fire information about wildland fires across the Pacific Northwest. The information is posted by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in partnership with Public Information Officers that work for federal, state and local fire agencies and is drawn from official sources within the wildland fire community.

Fire Terms

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

8/16/2016 Rail Fire Update

Northwest Incident Management Team 6

Shawn Sheldon, Incident Commander

Rail Fire Update

August 16, 2016

As the winds and instability have increased, the
fire has crossed the 1370 road and established in the Monument Rock
Wilderness.Crews will work to improve
the alternate control line.Hand crews
will monitor the main fire, and burnout as needed to strengthen the south and
southwest lines.

As portions of the fire line cool down, fire
crews will begin mop-up operations as needed.Water tenders and fire engines will patrol
the line looking for smokes.

Helicopters are helping to cool the fire in the
wilderness and keep it from approaching new fire lines.Air tankers were used Monday to slow the
fire’s approach in the Table Rock Lookout area.

Firefighters’ main challenge for the day will be
the weather.Hot and dry conditions
are expected to persist today and last into the night.Night time humidity recoveries are predicted
to be poor.The fire is expected to
actively burn throughout the night.

Smoke conditions are being monitored daily.Conditions are expected to fluctuate
between very unhealthy and hazardous in the Unity area this morning.As the smoke lifts, conditions will
moderate. For more information on
smoke conditions and what to do please visit www.oregonsmoke.blogspot.com.

The Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur National Forests
have implemented a forest closure area.The closure is intended to reduce traffic on roads traveled by
firefighters and protect the public from hazardous fire areas.The area closure map and listed road
closures can be found on the Malheur National Forest web page.

Fire
at a Glance

Size: 18,623acres

Containment:15%

Location: 5
miles west of Unity, Oregon

Cause: Under
Investigation

Personnel:

21 Crews

21 Engines

5 Dozers

18 Water tenders

4 Masticators

5 Skidders

Aircraft:

4 Type 1 heavy helicopters

1 Type 2 medium helicopter

2 Type 3 light helicopter

Closure:

Fire
area and multiple roads. The order can be found on the forest website.